Jonathon Edwards

I was rather uncomfortable reading Edwards' "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God". I didn't even listen to it be delivered; I just read it and I was struck by what he had to say. It is quite easy to tell that Edwards believes that only those who are born again will be able to go to Heaven. He claims that God absolutely hates sinners and holds them in the highest contempt. It's almost as if Edwards is saying that God is a puppeteer who takes great pleasure in screwing his enemies over. He dangles them by a thread over the depths of Hell just to watch them squirm and then lets them goes as He pleases and watches them die. And apparently He gets pleasure from this. This is what made me the most uncomfortable and made me not want to finish reading his sermon. Because of Jesus, all people have been saved from their sins, according to the Scriptures. So I think that since God demonstrated His love for us by sending His son, He most definitely is not dangling us above Hell and getting immense pleasure from our suffering. I believe that it hurts God to watch us hurt, and it hurts Him even more when people actually do end up in Hell. Because of these beliefs of mine based on the gospels, it was really hard to read Edwards' sermon all the way through. I think he spent way too much time on the Old Testament verses about God's wrath then the New Testament verses about His love for us through His son.